Education Committee passes bill to repeal Common Core

The Common Core education standards could be on the way out of Alabama classrooms.

MONTGOMERY, AL (WAFF) -

The Common Core education standards could be on the way out of Alabama classrooms. The Alabama Senate's Education Policy Committee approved a proposal Wednesday to repeal the set of nationally recognized standards for schools.

Common Core is designed to keep students across the country in line with national math and English standards. Common Core supporters argue the standards can best prepare students for success in other states and other countries. But those against it say Common Core would allow the federal government to dictate what's taught in Alabama schools.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said with so many families with children who come to the Tennessee Valley for military-based work and other jobs, getting rid of Common Core would make that move more difficult. Battle said the universal standards would be especially important with the expected influx of residents that may come with the next round of Base Realignment and Closures, or BRAC.

"We have a thousand active military standing out on Redstone Arsenal. This thousand military move in their military lifetime about twenty times. And when they move from state to state to state, you want to make sure that they can come in and move with the greatest ease as possible. If they move and their child is in the seventh grade, we want their children to be in the seventh grade in Huntsville, Alabama," Battle said.

The push to repeal Common Core is coming from Republicans in the legislature, with this bill sponsored by Senator Scott Beason of Gardendale. But not all in the party agree with getting rid of Common Core. Madison Republican Senator Bill Holtzclaw, who is an Education Policy Committee member, voted against the repeal.

"I stopped by the local Madison City Schools superintendent and I said show me a textbook with this common core and he gave me a common core textbook to show to the committee today and this is a fourth grade math book on common core and you know what's in it? Math," Holtzclaw said before the vote.

There are 45 other states connected by the standards. The bill to repeal the education standards will next go to the senate for a vote.

The mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has sparked calls for walkouts, sit-ins and other actions on school campuses nationwide aimed at pushing lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws.

The mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has sparked calls for walkouts, sit-ins and other actions on school campuses nationwide aimed at pushing lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws.